Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Berowra for his question and acknowledge his enormous interest in this area and his advocacy for those with disability, especially with mental disability and challenges, and his lifelong work in this area, which we can all be so very proud of. Likewise, the entire House can be proud of what we're all trying to do with the NDIS. It is a world-leading endeavour. It started above politics, and I know we're all committed to keeping it above that. It's been a great privilege for many of us in this House to work on its rollout.

Today the NDIS supports more than 480,000 extraordinary Australians who are seeking to achieve their goals, their dreams and their aspirations. In 2013 we put the first participant into the scheme, and today, eight years later, we are approaching the milestone of half a million Australians. Prior to the NDIS, of course, support for those Australians with disability was fragmented across the Commonwealth, states and territories. Around $7 billion was spent annually, if you roll it all up, yet today in the July to September period this year alone, just three months in duration, the NDIS made payments of $6.4 billion to participants. That's a 350 per cent increase in just eight years, which goes to the extraordinary commitment of governments towards the scheme. In June 2014, just one year into the NDIS, there were 1,350 providers; today there are over 17,800. We should be proud of what we're achieving.

Tomorrow, as we all know, is the International Day of People with Disability. The House won't be sitting, so it's incumbent that we use this day in this House to recognise Australians with disability and collectively seek to celebrate what they've achieved. I think it's important we take the opportunity to highlight the incredible work that the providers, carers, family members and those working in the disability sector do. They make a world of difference in the lives of extraordinary Australians. Can I simply say thank you to all those working in the area. It's the work that those beautiful Australians do to care for Australians with disability that allows those Australians to reach for the sky.

A great example in the member for Lindsay's electorate is the blind chef of Penrith. Craig is an incredible man. Beating childhood cancer, he went on to pursue a skilled career, becoming a fully qualified chef and, of course, working in some of Sydney's great establishments. Supported by the NDIS, he pursued his dream of opening his own joint, the Blind Chef Cafe & Dessert Bar on Penrith's High Street. He employs Australians of all ability in his cafe. The cafe is designed for accessibility for all Australians. It's because of the great workers of the NDIS that the blind chef can continue to work today. Thank you to all of them.

See this speech in context